Forest dwellers are its best protectors

THE world's tropical rainforests should be handed back to their inhabitants, who protect them better than governments or rangers, and spend more on their upkeep. That is the conclusion of a major review to be presented this week to a UN meeting on the world's tropical forests - talks in which, critics say, forest inhabitants do not get a look-in.

The study, Who Conserves the Forests?, by the Washington-based Forest Trends group contradicts the popular image of farmers and hunters as the primary destroyers of rainforests. In fact, forest dwellers are a bigger and more effective force for conservation than park authorities, and are often better forest researchers than foreign scientists, the report's co-author Augusta Molnar says.

Most of the world's tropical rainforests are the property of national governments. But too often that results in lawlessness and uncontrolled deforestation. By contrast, local control is a "cost-effective, long-term solution to the ...

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